Valeria never knew her grandparents were. If you were born from a "true" Lavine, you never should. It had always been incredulous to Valeria on how Shion managed to know his grandfather. Both the Chief prior to her father, and Shion were ridiculously strong even for a Lavine but for some odd reason, his father wasn't.
Shion's father wasn't weak, don't misunderstand, but he wasn't the heir to the family. His elder sister was surprisingly, chosen by Shion's grandfather to be the heir despite her rather soft personality. She was strong and independent, beautiful and fearless, but perhaps she disliked the clan as much as Valeria did. Thinking back, Valeria wonders if she was chosen simply because the previous Chief refused to step down from his reign of power over his family, even though he would let go of his political position among the clan. Perhaps he knew that his eldest daughter chose her own death rather than killing him. If that was the reason, Valeria would not be surprised. She never liked the old man because he was more infatuated with power and strength compared to Shion.
As she thought about her supposedly childhood friend's lineage, she curiously wondered about her own. There was a time that she believed her parents shared genuine joy and love with her but it was so hard to believe because of their sudden change in behaviour.
The first hour of her eight birthday had not even arrived and she was already, thrown into another bizarre situation quite literally. The Miazhuku Islands off of the coast of the edges of the Che'ang Empire held vicious cannibals. Thee Islands and the Empire were separated by a merciless river, which appeared to be calm, but had inescapable currents. As Valeria was dropped off on the island with no advice and boat, she watched the island inhabitants peer over at her curiously before their eyes turned into bloodthirsty hunger.
Two years had not yet approached but Valeria already learnt the lesson of what a child should never have to learn: Never trust anyone and it's the whole world against you.
*:.｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*
"Congratulations…" Shion sang in Valeria's ear before she picked up the nearest park bench and was ready to swing it at him. "...Ugly gorilla.!" Say goodbye to the lovely bench donated by one of the Hunter Exam's sponsors. Leorio scowled at the redhead and Kurapika sighed, looking slightlydistant. Gon looked over at Valeria who's face seemed to be even more contorted into a frown than usual, before glancing at Kurapika.
"Are you okay?" The boy asked the blonde who forced a smile upon hearing his concern. The Kurta merely responded with: "I'm having a migraine." Leorio paced around, irritated and rather fidgety. He glanced nervously at the two Lavines across from them before concluding it may be a decent idea to interfere. Of course, the idea was not the best, not to mention utterly useless.
"Don't get any closer!" Valeria hissed at him, and the three friends of hers were unsure if she had said that because she did not want Leorio to be within Shion's reach, or because she was scared of everything at the moment. And the truth was, it was the latter. She's a highly defensive person and when she feels vulnerable and weak, she automatically viewed everything as a potential threat. Saying that she had trust issues is not an exaggeration. Her current jumpy behaviour did not resemble that of a descendant from the great Tiger lineage, but rather...
"Well aren't you acting like a newborn kitty? Except the only difference is that kittens are quite adorable while you're just an ugly gorilla." Shion teased as he casually catched all of the thrown objects and gracefully placed them down on the ground. Valeria growled and lunged at him with her fists clenched. The older boy simply jumped and landed on her back, kicking her so that she stumbled forward. Using her quick reflexes, the girl turned and grabbed his ankle, swinging him into a nearby tree, knocking both him and the tree down. Valeria huffed as her heartbeat refused to slow down and she cautiously circled around the damaged tree, maintaining a good distance. Shion sat up, grabbed his necked and he tilted his head side to side, relieving the tension. He grinned, clearly unphased before commenting: "You're still a newborn child trying to learn how to walk compared to me Valeria." At that, Valeria flinched before she backed away.
"Yo!" They were interrupted by Hanzo, who noticed the commotion from far away. He glanced at the two Lavines, with amusement rather than fear before Valeria straightened up from her crouched position. She noticed that Shion had not motive to fight right now and so she decided to approach her group.
"Its' baldie." She commented as she greeted the person. He forced himself to still wear his smile at that greeting before he continued with what he wanted to say. "I'll be returning to my country, It was a short, yet seemingly long acquaintance but I had fun." At this Gon grinned brightly and nodded in agreement.
Hanzo then handed Kurapika cards for the four of them as Valeria peered down noticing it was his contact information. "Let me know when you visit my country, I'll be sure to show you the best tourist spots." He then left the group as Kurapika commented how odd that a ninja like him was trying to leave a strong impression. Shion watched from afar and faked feeling hurt as he pouted: "Aww, he didn't leave a card for me."
Valeria simply muttered "Shut the fuck up" before another new Hunter approached them. Ponzo stared at them before he apologized to Kurapika and the two of them removed any hard feelings they had from the examination room.
Earlier, it was quite a scene from a drama. Valeria, Kurapika, and Leorio had sat in the back waiting for the Chairman to hand them their Hunter license. Of course, their spiky haired companion burst through the door and picked a fight with the most, as Valeria liked to describe him, repulsive and eerie person. And then all the passed Hunters began to point fingers at who passed and won the fights in the oddest and most questionable ways. Ponzo and Kurapika were close to wrapping their hands around each others' necks.
"I was angry that you were right. But now, I'm going to accept that I passed and make the best of it. I'm going to travel around the world and discover new species, as an Exotic Game Hunter."
The group marvelled before he handed them his contact and left. They were immediately approached by their first examiner before Gon left with him. The group exchanged looks before Kurapika commented: "We will wait in the lobby."
Gon came back not long after he left and Valeria and the rest had hunted down a computer. Much to their discomfort, Shion, of course followed them. Fortunately, he was rather quiet and didn't do much, and even better, he seemed rather bored and did not pay much attention. As Kurapika searched up Kukuroo Mountain, Valeria then arched an eyebrow at the country's name.
"I don't recognize it."
"No one would have expected you too." She received a casual reply from the other Lavine which provoked her to flip her middle finger at him. Gon then immediately asked if they can book tickets to leave today and Kurapika sighed.
"Why not?" Valeria reached over and pointed at a link that would directly allow them to book tickets to the Republic. Kurapika grinned and opened the link, moving quickly and efficiently to buy the tickets. An uninvited voice also chimed in: "Me too." Everyone looked at Shion and shared the same hesitance to reply or think. Of course, Valeria was immediate to complain and for the first time they heard her whine.
"No one invited you, why are you coming?" She yelled as she stuck both of her middle fingers up at him. He hummed before his voice became dangerously low and his eyes glowed menacingly.
"Did you think I stopped by idly to watch you play around? Your father wanted me to bring you back. For four major reasons, would you like to let me explain them?" Silence filled the air and tensions was evident. Shion took in Valeria's strained expression before beaming and listing off the reasons.
"Number one, intensive training. You've turned out quite pathetic since the last time I saw you...I'm sure you don't want to disappoint your family. Two, the Emperor's Parade is coming up and his Majesty is going to handpick some generals. Again, it is for your family's interest and the clan's that you make a good impression. Three, my coronation and four….Your Birthday!" At the last word, she felt her blood turn cold and Valeria immediately got defensive.
"There's still a long time until my birthday, and I don't plan on staying home until the ceremony!"
At that, Shion's voice lowered dangerously: "I'm ensuring that once you're finished playing a game of 'friends' I'm taking you back home!" His smile then dropped and his whole face showed no amusement. "It's an order, Valeria, not a choice."
A moment of silence swept in before Valeria muttered a string of curses before she reluctantly told Kurapika to buy an extra ticket. She then grabbed a nearby chair and flung it into his face before asking. "Now then...shall we get moving?" Her friends stared at her before looking at Shion who was still smiling, just in pain and clutching his bleeding nose..
"...Yeh sure." Was all they could manage.
*:.｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*
"Well isn't our dear Killua the young rich master." Valeria stated in a monotone voice as she literally raised her her head in a ninety degrees angle to get a good view of how tall the front gate of the Zoldyck estate was.
"The front gate is also known as the Gate of Hades because no one who's entered has ever returned alive! To enter you must pass through the door beside the security checkpoint. But the area beyond the gate is private property so we cannot proceed."
"Hold on!" Leorio glanced up and then down and then up at the gate before shouting: "This is the front gate? The mountain is all the way over there!"
"Correct! The Zoldyck own all of Kukuroo Mountain as well as the surrounding land!" Their tourist guide grinned happily while Shion whistled.
"It's a sham. No one has ever seen the family's faces...even one photo is worth millions of dollars." Two men holding heavy weapons walked up to the gate while Leorio became immediately energetic.
"Seriously? Damn! I should have taken a photo of Killua." Leorio snapped before the two men attacked the security guard, who then passed the keys to his assaultants and they passed through the gate. Moments later, a large hand passed the skeletons of the previous two people. It took awhile for things to settle in and then the other tourist guides ran away.
"Looks like we have someone who's possibly going to eat us next." Valeria stuck her hands in her pocket and the other three gave her a look. She then glanced back at them before stating: "It was a joke."
The group sighed before Gon helped the attacked security guard up. The guard invited them into his office explaining to them that they will not be seeing Killua unless they go through the testing gate. Gon was immediately angry and his failed attempts to get through the butler only caused more irritation. Leorio had tried earlier and couldn't make the door open. But after watching Gon attempt to climb the wall, Valeria faced the security guard and asked: "Do you mind letting my try?"
Shion became serious as he watched Valeria approach the Testing Gate. This was a good opportunity to measure how strong the Lavine was. If she couldn't open at least three gates, he would be majorly disappointed and even contemplate on just getting rid of her. His ideal Lavine Clan has no need for the weak and Valeria was aware of that.
She stared up at the gates before placing her palm on them. She closed her eyes, inhaling slowly before her eyes sprung open and her back muscles flexed and showed how well developed she was. The first gate opened, then the second, then third and finally, the fourth gate opened. As they passed through it, Kurapika and Leorio patted her back, noticing how her breathing pace had quickened. Shion stared at her, without much emotion before he turned away from her and awaited for the approaching watchdog. For now, she wasn't disposable yet.